8241. KAPASUKI, YOUR NAMESAKE

KAPASUKI, YOUR NAMESAKE

You say you were born in Oklahoma.

But I cannot for a moment believe that.

It is far too warm for your cold, unsettled

type. And besides, tornadoes make you

angry, and I can hear you gripe. Or make

imagination tell me I am hearing such.

-

One time, here, when I was doing something

and looked up, I saw a man on fire, running

to the sea. Just today, in that same location,

I was sitting, with my dog, looking out to

the harbor before me, and a woman came

over to speak. She was old, some bit older

than me. She pointed to a distant, rusting

tower, in an abandoned old lot a ways off.

She said, 'That was the Pan Am Seaplane

landing strip, in the 1940's, did you know?

I worked for them until 1974.'

-

I figured her for 80. 'I had no idea of that,'

I replied. She then went on, in a strange and

rambling fashion, how, 'One time, in NYC,

I was involved, in my office at Pan Am  - 

they were the greatest airline, you know,

absolutely magnificent  -  with the very

first plane hijacking ever. I took the call

from Charles Lindbergh himself, asking me

to find the President of the company, Mr.

Juan Trippe, in the building somewhere,

and put him on so they could talk a strategy

for this hijacking and the media. I simply

did as I was told.' I had to think  -  when did

Lindbergh die, was she saying something

truthful, was she mad? I stayed polite, but

kind of realized already I was done and

hoped she'd go.

-

She got in her car, and left. And then she

turned around, and drove right back, up

to me, and rolled down her window. 'If

you go over there,' pointing to the airstrip

area, 'and if the same guy owns it, ask him

to show you the two photo books they have

of pictures of all those days . When things

like that were good. Now, now all we get

are tragedies like Lockerbie.'